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Author Archives: jesssteele
The New Cross Massacre / The Deptford Fire / The Black People’s Day of Action
Black People’s Day of Action Continue reading
Posted in Deptford, JRS website
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Thoughts about Hastings Pier 10 years after the fire
Today is my daughter’s 20th birthday. A decade ago she spent her 10th birthday in the shadow of the still-smouldering Hastings Pier fire. I had been up all night, watching from the White Rock Hotel while our beloved pier was … Continue reading
Posted in Hastings, Hastings Pier, JRS website, Piers, Seaside
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Crisis, Recovery, Transition, Legacy
“Provide hope and inspiration for collective action to build collective power to achieve collective transformation. Rooted in grief and rage but pointed towards vision and dreams.” Patrisse Cullors, Black Lives Matter, 2013 “Hope offers us clarity that, amid the uncertainty … Continue reading
Posted in Hastings, JRS website, Policy, Thinking
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Thoughts in a crisis
I’m finding it hard to begin this but I want to share some thoughts and an update, so here goes: We are all reeling. We are what Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick called ‘Paranoid Readers’, desperately searching for information and meaning across … Continue reading
Posted in Jericho Road Solutions, JRS website, Thinking
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Whoever is Hastings’ new leader, let’s go to Wigan!
You and I and the other 95,000 Hastings inhabitants have no vote in the election that will happen tomorrow (17/2/20). Just 23 Labour councillors will choose the person who will lead our town for the next few years. Will we … Continue reading
Posted in Hastings, Self-renovating neighbourhoods
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The Lion & the Unicorn
The Lion and the Unicorn 1991 The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the Crown. The Lion beat the Unicorn all around the Town. Some gave them White Bread and some gave them Brown, And some gave them Plum-cake … Continue reading
Posted in Just Me
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Heart Break – Ore Valley let down again
The decision to sell the former power station site at Ore Valley to a private developer rather than to Heart of Hastings community land trust is finally sinking in for me, a fortnight after it was announced. This is how … Continue reading
A Great Leap Forwards
The Observer Building, Hastings Continue reading
Statement regarding Hastings Pier
STATEMENT FROM JESS STEELE REGARDING HASTINGS PIER February 2019 Since last summer there has been a disturbing level of polarisation within the town about the pier. I hope that this statement will help to tackle that and remind us of … Continue reading
Posted in Hastings Pier, Just Me, Uncategorized
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A working life as a community activist
Jess Steele talk to 200+ Year 7 and Year 8 students at Helenswood School, 25/1/19. 4 things that help you get ready for the future that you can’t see – all of them underpinned by READING Continue reading
How the Money Works Part 2: Rock House
(See also Part 1: Hastings Pier: How the Money Works) Until we as citizens understand ‘how the money works’ when it comes to developing land and buildings we will always be disadvantaged – land and buildings are where power is … Continue reading
Posted in Hastings, JRS website, Self-renovating neighbourhoods
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How the money works
I’m going to try to explain the financial package that Friends of Hastings Pier put together as simply as I can. This is both an exercise in extreme transparency and a practice run for some workshops I’m planning about how … Continue reading
Posted in Hastings, Hastings Pier, Jericho Road Solutions, Piers, Seaside
8 Comments
Hastings Pier – where our hearts are
After 19 crazy weeks of community mobilisation, commercial negotiation, late night bid-writing, endless spreadsheets, obsessive Crowdfunder checking, and the hard, hard work of keeping hope alive… this is me trying to make sense of what has happened, what has been … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Pride in Hastings Pier
I was really pleased, honoured, and emotional to be at the celebration event on the Pier yesterday to mark the achievements of the Learning & Education Team which has been funded by Heritage Lottery Fund for the past 5 years. … Continue reading
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Hastings Pier… 3 things you can do to help
“There are battles you think you’ve won, only to discover you need to fight them all over again” – Jonathan Freedland, Guardian 28/4/18 At first, when the Hastings Pier Charity was put into administration in November 2017, it seemed terrible … Continue reading
Posted in Hastings Pier, JRS website
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Water OMG!
It was a fascinating day in Southampton at the Labour Party #NewEconomics conference on Saturday. What stuck with me the most was being presented with the evidence behind the complete and ongoing rip-off and harm done by the privatisation of … Continue reading
Investing Upside Down (ppt)
Here’s a link to the slides I showed yesterday at the Labour Party #NewEconomics conference in Southampton. Plus the narrative notes. Investing Upside Down – Jess Steele Investing Upside Down – narrative
Friends Again!
Friends of Hastings Pier reestablished 2018 Continue reading
Posted in Hastings, Hastings Pier, JRS website, Piers, Seaside
2 Comments
I am losing my heart to Ore Valley
I feel like a love-struck teenager. I’ve always been in love with places, and always attracted to the underdogs – my towns Deptford and Hastings and all the other-people’s-places that I fall in love with: Blackpool, Scarborough, Bradford, Greater Manchester, Liverpool 8. If … Continue reading
1,000 Days
Jericho Road Solutions is 1,000 days old today, and I’m determined to carve out a little time to reflect on the experience and some of the lessons so far. It’s been an honour to work with ambitious, stubborn, creative leaders … Continue reading
Spinning Plates 